A blog about software development, mostly in Java and an emphasis on Big Data, noSql (Cassandra) and webapps. Many posts relate to the ac32007 (now ac32009) (Internet Programming) and ac41011 (Big Data) modules I teach at the University of Dundee

Friday, March 11, 2011

So you think you own your twitter name ?

I believe this matter has now been resolved and the girlgeeks name will go back to the original owner. Thanks for all the support.

So you think you own your twitter name ?

Chances are you don’t, chances are you could have it taken away from you at any moment or have it changed by twitter adding an underscore to it. So what does it matter, it’s only a twiter account after all. Wrong, your twitter account can be your main online presence, your main identity that people know you by and your main contact.

Suppose you’ve spent 2 years building an international reputation, have thousands of follower, some of own are leaders in their fields, some of who are close friends. Overnight their contact books are out of date, overnight their DM messages no longer go to you but some third party, overnight any archived Follow Friday tags #FF are out of date, overnight your on line reputation has gone. And worse, think how many resources you will need to update, business cards, linkedin, Skype and thats not to mention your presence in search engines. Can’t happen here ? It can and it has.

It happened to a close friend of mine last night. She spent over two years building the @girlgeeks account, spreading words of Girl Geek Scotland to over 26 countries. Last night an organsation called @GIRLGEEKS contacted Twitter to say they had registered trademark for Girl Geeks and wanted the @girlgeeks account for themselves. This organisation only stated a couple of months ago and yet compared to the prior reputation of @girlgeeks this meant nothing, Twitter took the account and handed it to them on a plate. To make matters worse, twitter sent message to the original owner to say they where going to change their twitter name, there was no chance to respond, to argue or to appeal. They just change your name and then tell you afterwards. Oh, and they ask you to make it clear on your that your account is not associated with the brand.

As the previous owner of @girlgeeks says:

“The message from Twitter is get an International TM for your name or they'll take it for a private ltd company”.

Just to make the effect clear, here's what happes if you do a search for girlgeeks on google:

Clearly pointing to the old account, we'd expect to see the good work girlgeeks has been doing. if we click on we get:

Not what expected and very damaging to the original owner to the original owner of the twitter account.

This is clear case of #copywrong, its heavy handed and I suspect that Twitter have no clear idea of the damage they have done. The message is clear, you don’t own your twitter account, Twitter does.

This is yet another reason why we need to switch over to federated/distributed Free/Open Source microblogging (and other) services ASAP. With that you can totally own all your own data and your own identity.

This is the problem we run into when we insist names be unique. At no point in history have names ever been unique. I can grab a phone book for any major city, and I guarantee you I'll find somebody who isn't me but who has the same name as me. In the real world, there's no problem with this. It's only when we move to the virtual world that suddenly there is a problem. Suddenly there is a race on to see who can be the one and only Wolfger. Or GirlGeeks

I'm with Wolfer, why not 46 GirlGeeks ? because twitter architect thought that it would be cool if there was only one @John in the world and let the others add funny numbers or characters to become @john69

seeking legal advice might be better than blogging about this. If the latecomer has clearly established trademark rights then maybe Twitter is right to prevent them being infringed by another user. However, in this instance you may have an effective counterargument, but you do need to present it logically and unemotionally to Twitter. Find a local IP law specialist

@Ivan: While you could develop a service like Twitter in which the username was not the unique identifier, what would it look like?

If I knew three users called John, and each of them had an account called @john, how would I know which one was posting, or which I was replying to?

OK, they could each have set their "real name" field to a suitable value, but that's not mandatory. More to the point, how would the service tell them apart? It would, of course, hold another unique identifier; most likely an integer which would be incremented as each new user signed up. So I'd just have to know I was answering @john 165223741, and not @john 135753435 or @john 4 (who is obviously one of the developers of the service).

So I don't think a Twitter architect required uniqueness because they thought it was "cool", but because it was practical.

There are business ethics to consider and a lot of questions about this and the way it was handled. Compare what happened with websites (lots of online claimjumping) and Facebook. Twitter could as a matter of courtesy have contacted Morna Simpson @girlgeeks to discuss this before acting in such a draconian fashion. Not to do so is bad manners and bad business practice. How did GirlGeeks (TM) register the name as a trademark when Morna Simpson had been using it online for two years? Did nobody search online beforehand? and if so, why wasn't Morna contacted? What relationship does the newly registered RTM holder have with the original GirlGeeks organisation? http://www.girlgeeks.org/about/history.shtml

I agree with the comments about the practicality of using the @name as the identifier, it simplifies so many things, especially given Twitter's uprising relying on SMS messages - ie, no application to lookup the identifier on your behalf.

But it is pretty shocking really. It would be bad enough to pander to such a nonsense request ("Oh please twitter, i know they got there first, but we'd actually quite like it") if they weren't using the name as the identifier. But given they have totally redirected followers to another account, there can be no excuse.

If the organisation in question was done on there own merits rather than the backend of GGD as a community then should you not have setup a company and also registered for the trademark? If your that passionate about your community followers then don't abuse your situation as that could become a legal matter.

I'm confused by all this rubbish,to be honest twitter also has regulations to follow and in my view has followed the correct protocol in doing so. this is why IPO was formed.

Twitter (and the people who lay claim to the username) are well within their right to transfer ownership if the account is clearly being squatted. In this instance, however, it was a very active account, which had no intentions of infringing on a trademark (which, as far as I can see wasn't even _registered_ when the @girlgeeks account was set up).

This isn't even a chicken and egg problem. Twitter obviously just like to side with whoever could potentially sue them for more money. It's the same bending-over-backwards behaviour we saw when the U.S. government wanted to make a case against WikiLeaks and requested private details for all followers of the @wikileaks account.

"quote"If the organisation in question was done on there own merits rather than the backend of GGD as a community then should you not have setup a company and also registered for the trademark? If your that passionate about your community followers"

As many are aware Registration of a trademark by law has to be put out to Journal. which in this case by the looks of it was not contested hence the Registered TM being granted in. England,Wales,Scotland.

Personally looking at the minor insults and credibility involved is childish.Get on with it, learn from it and don't cause the holder of the TM grief as they obviously done it by the book.(which i don't blame them at all)

As a matter of law (sorry) if GirlGeeks had been using the name before the TM were registered, then they would have concurrent rights and could continue to use the name after the TM granted. However, Twitter probably dont care and if someone appears with a TM certificate, Twitter may bow to that - albeit that the law is different.

You DO NOT own your twitter name (or indeed for that matter any other Social Network name or even domain name). Your only rights (if any) are based on the contract you have with the network / registrar or whatever. GirlGeeks "may" have rights and remedies but despite the undoubted value of lawyers, it is probably better to select a different name and move on.

I'm not sure that the TM would not be attackable for revocation on the basis that it is wholly descriptive anyway.

Costs probably do prevent much being done about it but it does emphasise the importance of a coordinated and considered brand strategy from day 1.

I think it would be somewhat different if the user name in question was an actual name. Had Ms. Simpson used her name as the basis for her Twitter name, 1) this could have been averted entirely and 2) she'd have a much stronger claim on it.

Also, the user name change does not affect followers. From Twitter:

NOTE: Changing your username will not affect your existing followers, direct messages, or @replies. They will simply see a new username next to your picture when you update.

Still, according to their policy on user names and trademarks (http://support.twitter.com/articles/18367-trademark-policy):

How Does Twitter Respond To Reported Trademark Policy Violations?

When we receive reports of trademark policy violations from holders of federal or international trademark registrations, we review the account and may take the following actions:

When there is a clear intent to mislead others through the unauthorized use of a trademark, Twitter will suspend the account and notify the account holder.

When we determine that an account appears to be confusing users, but is not purposefully passing itself off as the trademarked good or service, we give the account holder an opportunity to clear up any potential confusion. We may also release a username for the trademark holder's active use.

What Is not a Trademark Policy Violation?

Using another's trademark in a way that has nothing to do with the product or service for which the trademark was granted is not a violation of Twitter's trademark policy.

Twitter usernames are provided on a first-come, first-served basis and may not be reserved.

It seems pretty clear to me that Ms. Simpson was not, in fact, in violation of Twitter's trademark policy.

@David Girl Geeks co uk must have known of the existence of @girlgeeks_ (that's their new Twitter given handle) - because they asked Twitter to change the account.

They had not communicated with @girlgeeks_, as far as I know, beforehand. It would have been simple courtesy to do so, ask for the name to be changed, and allow a transition period so that @girlgeeks_ could alert their thousands of contacts.

Not only would this have been good manners, it would have been good business practice. It would have encouraged people like me to sign up to the new account as well as continuing to follow the existing one.

Since the people who are following @girlgeeks_ are the sort of people the new @girlgeeks account is targeting, they'd have started off with a high positive rating and recognition factor. They'd have been collaborating in the open, 21st century way rather than behaving as though we were still in the cutthroat 1980s.

As it is, I'd rather pull my own molars out without anaesthetic than have anything to do with them, charitable organisation & social enterprise though they may be.

A sane, sensible corporate policy would be to include a contingency for cases like this in their terms and conditions, allow both sides to put their cases for arbitration and when the decision is made, have a recognised procedure for transferring account handles.

At the very least Twitter should insist that the two sides contact each other first.

Really, I think the only accceptable course of action here is for Mia to give back @GirlGeeks to Morna (the original account holder) and use @GirlGeeksUK which at the time of this posting is available.

I can't think of any other options offhand, and continuing the present situation is nothing but an horrendous mbarrassment to Mia/GirlGeeks and an undeserved slap in the face to Morna.

As mentioned before, it's a privilege to use Twitter, not a human right. If your marketing campaign fails because of that you need to grow up and start doing real things and think about real ideas. It's free, you agreed to the terms of services, get over it.

I'm so tired of seeing people complain about everything. Cop on, move on with your life and have a bit of ingenuity instead of whining.

I'm not naive or stupid enough to think I *own* my twitter name. I never paid for it, I read the terms of services and I signed up fake names before. I really don't see why you are so worked up. Obviously your marketing campaign is flawed and unoriginal and don't try and blame twitter for it.

Morna you say your a director of Girl Geeks Scotland and have raised £80k+ why are you not listed on companies house? so who pocketed the funds raised.

How can you be a director of a organisation that is not even incorporated and that goes for GGD..

Its OK saying its something when its pretty transparent that your organisation mentioned is loose for anyone to use (which you don't own?have you not just piggy backed your idea from GGD?

confusing to me why something so loose can presume ownership of the world..

What i will add is the slander with your comments and posts raised via twitter is a joke and very childish and naming people and addresses is child like actions. i would see things like this from a 2 year old. after what i have seen I don't blame the other party involved if they decided not to release the name back to you.

If you find this insulting then maybe a few need to wake up...a loose organisation cannot say they are something when its clear its nothing apart from a media pot of people with similar interests!

"quote"There's a difference between legal rights and 'Doing the right thing'.

is that not what companies pay legal rights for? ie: protection. and forming companies and so forth..

get a grip please..most of the comments i see are from employed people..try the real world of self employed business.

Thanks for this is an important cautionary tale about the fragility of our internet identities. But I do take issue with this statement:

"This is clear case of #copywrong"

Now I'm no supporter of copyright but this has absolutely nothing to do with it -- this is clearly a trademark matter.

Trademark (in the US, where twitter is based, but I believe int'l too) defines the concept of "dilution" -- the notion that if you don't defend your trademark from becoming a generic term you could lose it. Lawyers have of course jumped all over this and seem to suggest it must be defended aggressively. From the rebuttal letter it sounds like this poor woman received this brand of ridiculous legal advice.

The irony is that this over-aggressive behavior, if unchecked (though her apology seemed sincere), will do far more damage to her "brand" than she can imagine. Hopefully she will do the right thing and give back the twitter account. If she's really worried about her brand all she has to do is extend a free "license" to your friend to use the brand name -- clearly they share a cause in common.

There are probably a few issues between the parties that we are not aware of, but Twitter's failure to listen to both sides is suprising. It does need to act in a responsible way if it wants the platform to continue to succeed, even if it is offered as a free resource. I think the most remarkable thing about this is Twitter's failure to understand that the registration only protects the logo, not the name... See my blog post http://ping.fm/SoJRD

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